Baba Siddique’s Son Joins Team Ajit Pawar, Was Expelled By Congress
Zeeshan Siddique, son of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique – who was shot dead earlier this month – joined the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party Friday morning, days before the state votes in an Assembly election.
Siddique – expelled by the Congress in August, after the party reported cross-voting in legislative council polls – will defend the Vandre (East) seat he won in 2019 from Varun Sardesai, the nephew of ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena faction is allied with the Congress and the Sharad Pawar NCP as part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.
In his first comments after joining the Pawar NCP, he hit out at the MVA, accusing them of abandoning him after his father’s murder. “This is an emotional day for me and my family. I am thankful to Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, and Sunil Tatkare for believing in me in these tough times.”
“I have got the nomination from Bandra East, I am sure that with the love and support of all the people, I will definitely win Bandra East ye again…” Mr Siddique said.
Mr Siddique had slammed the Congress on Thursday after the MVA named another politician as its Vandre (East) candidate. “I heard old friends have announced their candidates from Vandre East. Supporting was never in their nature,” he said in a caustic post on X.
“Maintain relations with those who give respect, no point in surrounding yourself with a crowd, now the people will decide,” he wrote in early clues he would soon fly under a different political banner.
The Vandre East seat has gone to Uddhav Thackeray’s party as part of a seat-sharing deal between MVA allies, each of whom will contest 85 seats, with the remaining 33 to be divided among smaller parties.
Baba Siddiqui, 66, was shot dead outside Zeeshan Siddique’s office in Bandra on October 12. A total of 14 people have been arrested and police are probing different angles, including contract killing and business rivalry, to establish what was behind the murder. A former Maharashtra minister, Baba Siddiqui was Congress MLA from Vandre from 1999-2009. After the seat was dissolved and bifurcated, he represented Vandre West from 2009-14. Earlier this year, he quit the Congress and joined the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP.
Disclaimer: (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the KanoonKiBaat staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source Link
